Analysis of Vertovs Film :: essays research papers

In the clown player’s 1991 film â€Å"The Drug Movie†, the art of cinema verite is taken to heights of realism not seen since Roberto Rosselinni’s triumphant â€Å"Rome, Open City†. By combining realistic settings, lighting, sound, etc. with keenly observant camera placement, the filmakers draw us into a world very few of us ever actually see outside the comforts of a theater. Dziga Vetov, in his essays on the nature of man as seen through the â€Å"Kino-Eye†, touched upon something that the makers of â€Å"The Drug Movie† are obviously very aware of. That is, the camera, more so than anything human, will see to the core of its target. Beyond the actors, beyond the sets and special effects, is the soul of the film. If the emotion is pure and the situations genuine, than the camera is but a window to the truth. The Clown Player’s have crafted a finely nuanced example of this cinematic honesty with â€Å"The Drug Movie†. The film’s opening is startling and immediately draws us into the unfolding drama. We are given a brief glimpse of a very annoying girl mentioning her hometown of â€Å"Coral Springs Florida!†. The scene quickly shifts to static than the glare of an incandescant ceiling lamp. Within this brief montage, the filmaker’s have raised our expectations and shifted them within a few brief moments. This masterful use of cinematic manipulation is but a foreshadowing of the upcoming events. Nothing is what it seems and nothing can be predicted. Like life, this celluloid canvas is painted with the ever-shifting brush of the unknown. From the lamp, the camera pans to our players. Three males, two white, one black sit around table. As they talk, their dialogue is somewhat muted and difficult to decifer. It soon becomes painfully obvious that we the viewer are not privy to this cabal. Again, the Clown Player’s continue to exhibit complete control over their audience. As the camera cuts in for a closer view of the group, we finally hear the topic of their intense exchange. Two of the men are working diligently on a model car. One of them, Lance ( Chriss Celentano, beautifully underplaying his rather nebbish character) is thoroughly absorbed in his work. Across from him, Dirk (Big A in another of his unfortunately underdeveloped characterizations) flips through an instruction book. The clowns have blocked their scene in order for the viewer’s attention to fall upon the young man seated at the head of the table.

Darwin Destroyed the Concept of Human Specialness

Darwin destroyed the concept of human specialness I would say I disagree quite strongly with the assertion that Darwin destroyed the specialness of humanity. For this relatively brief paper I am going to attempt to refute this claim and try to highlight some of the things that highlight how we have kept the same level of ‘specialness' that we have always had. There are many people who would say that we humans are the only beings with full consciousness, in the words of a great many this would translate to having a soul.Humans surely have a soul-like property, a mind, something that separates us from the multitudes of lower species from the smorgasbord of earthly life. It isn't my purpose for this paper to discuss whether or not we have a soul but I do intend to talk about what constitutes our mind, our selves. The fact that we as humans possess a high degree of consciousness to me spells a very special kind of existence.Can even our nearest intelligent creatures on the tree of life appreciate the magnificence of life? Can a chimpanzee sit back and admire the beauty of the sprawling life in the jungle? Does he marvel at his own bodies ability to repair itself after he has been in a bloody brawl with a rival? Can a dolphin be awestruck by the morning sun glistening on the surface of the water? Does he wonder what life would be like for him if he were one of those surface beings he often sees on boats in the ocean?Humans are extraordinary because, being the most advanced form of life on the planet, we possess brains larger than all other forms of life(save for some large mammals but even then ours are much bigger proportionally) With this we have evolved two magnificent features which can only set us worlds apart from and ahead of all other life forms. We have this amazing sense of self, sense of awareness- in a word -consciousness. This grants us the capability of knowing who and what we are (to a large extent anyway), and where we came from (Darwin is owed some credit in this field).It is the ability to see beauty in a sunset on a savannah, to hear the splendour in Tchaikovskys The Nutcracker, to read great works of literature and be able to travel the universe with our imaginations. The other great feature we have as a follow on from having large brains is the wonderful power of language. This splendid trait has gone hand in hand with consciousness to create the incredibly unique life form that homo sapiens has become. Our ability to understand the universe and our position in it is one of the glories of the human species.Our ability to link mind to mind by language, and especially to transmit our thoughts across the centuries is another (Dawkins 2008 p3) Our advanced cultures have truly become magnificent phenomena. We have complex, yet highly virtuous systems of ethics and values. Largely stemming from our aforementioned large brains and the use of language we have self evolved to create ways of living that set us apart from all t he rest of earthly creatures, both those alive today and all the previous inhabitants of the earth including ones from bygone eras.Humanity is replete with themes of co-operation, love, compassion, altruism, sympathy for our fellow beings as well as for all other life forms. We have been capable of many such virtues for a long time, since we became human one could say. As John Eccles (1980 p204) reminds us, there are snippets of evidence that as far back as eighty thousand years ago Neanderthal man held ceremonial burials- a truly altruistic act. Or, as he also noted- the bones of two men dated from sixty thousand years ago which show they were incapacitated for up to two years yet they had been kept alive by caring tribes folk.There is other evidence from as far back as this of the compassionate behaviour between members of humanity and we all know only too well of absolutely countless examples of it in recent history and of course in present day. For all modern mans shortcomings a nd problems in our societies, we have always been gifted with a great sense of right and wrong, of cruelty and kindness. With this majestic property that is consciousness comes the boundless faculty of thought. We are capable to reason, plan, remember to a limitless degree.Technology today has become something we could never have imagined even one hundred years ago. We have invented the most ingenious and sophisticated equipment to be able to look inside our brains. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)scans and the more recent positron-emission topography(PET) scans are machines with wonderful capabilities for seeing goings on in the brain. We can monitor which parts of the brain are being used when we experience certain thoughts. We cannot however, as Ward highlights(2008 p147), even begin to monitor in advance what people are thinking.Our thoughts are far and away more complex and profound than any other animals (or machine) can hope to have and, importantly, remain ours and ours only . If we try to look at the bigger picture, the macroscopic view of things, are we still special? When we gaze up into the night sky and contemplate our place in the universe it is very easy to become overawed by the sheer scale of the cosmos and our relative minuteness in it. How can there be anything special about us when we are almost nothing in relation to the vast universe.I believe it is not that we are in the universe but that we are the universe. â€Å"Far from exposing human beings as incidental products of blind physical forces, science suggests that the existence of conscious organisms is a fundamental feature of the universe†(Davies 1992 p21). As Davies alludes to here humanity is actually an intrinsic part of the universe and, whether or not there are other advanced conscious beings far out in space, we are or are part of the pinnacle of life, of nature, and of the cosmos.If the universe is one giant living organism, a vast clockwork mechanism, a massive computer then we are its brain, its central cog, its CPU. I try to imagine the perspective of a person who would make a statement like the title for this essay. I can understand the point whereby humanity is seen as simply the result of a very long line of life adapting and developing or, to use the term elucidated and made famous by Darwin- evolution. Life is just mechanical, they might say they have learned from Darwin, it only instinctively drives to keep living.What's so special about what is simply the as yet highest point of this unconscious , robotic like endeavour in nature. Are we more special than the animals below us on the food chain, or before us in eras like the dinosaurs. Was even the earliest amoeba not as special as us given its importance in the chain of events? This viewpoint, while largely correct in its facts and assumptions, doesn't give any credence to what homo sapiens has become since he has evolved from the ape.Hopefully this paper has made some of a case as to why the two legged big brained organisms that we are have a deep specialness to them. Bibliography Davies, Paul. 1992. THE MIND OF GOD. London: Penguin Books Dawkins, Richard. 2008. MODERN SCIENCE WRITING. Oxford: Oxford University Press Eccles, John C.. 1980. THE HUMAN PSYCHE. Berlin: Routledge Ward, Keith. 2008. The Big Questions in Science and Religion. Pennsylvania: Templeton Foundation Press

Impact Of Pastoral Nomads And Transhumant Herders Essay

The impact that pastoral nomads and transhumant herders can still be seen today. They had a huge impact in Egyptian, Mesopotamia, and the Indus Valley civilizations. Some of the impacts were things such as culture, agriculture, religion, social classes/hierarchies, gender roles, and specialization of labor. Throughout all of these influences, it is seen that none of these societies were isolated from each other. One way pastoral nomads lived a different lifestyle than transhumant herders was through agriculture. First, agriculture was a big part of the nomad’s lifestyle. The earliest sign of agriculture is in Southwest Asia and was their main form of survival which included planting crops and domesticating animals. Agriculture gave people a regular food supply, and eventually was able to produce surpluses of food (pg.7). Thus, surpluses of food allowed for large populations and for labor specialization. Large populations and labor specialization led to social classes which ranked from highest to lowest was: elites (kings, religious leaders), commoners (craftsmen/farmers), and slaves. As wealth and social standings grew, so did the gender gaps. Women were thought of as being the first to begin the systematic care of plants, while men began to capture animals and domesticating them (pg.7). Transhumant herders lived a much different lifestyle than those of the nomads. The main difference between these two societies is that the herders hunted and gathered their food instead

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot Essay - 1844 Words

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot It is said that George Eliot’s style of writing deals with much realism. Eliot, herself meant by a â€Å"realist† to be â€Å"an artist who values the truth of observation above the imaginative fancies of writers of â€Å"romance† or fashionable melodramatic fiction.† (Ashton 19) This technique is artfully utilized in her writings in a way which human character and relationships are dissected and analyzed. In the novel The Mill on the Floss, Eliot uses the relationships of the protagonist of the story, Miss Maggie Tulliver, as a medium in which to convey various aspects of human social associations. It seems that as a result of Maggie’s nature and of circumstances presented around her, that she is never able†¦show more content†¦Maggie always felt a responsibility to please her father and to never cause him any grievances. She was loyal to him at times that he seemed to not return her affection â€Å"How she wished that [her father] would stoke her head, or give her some sign that he was soothed by the sense that he had a daughter who loved him!† (Eliot 371) When her father was in the lowest point of self-ruin and was under the scrutiny of the family, Maggie took upon the position of the protector and loyally defended her protector. â€Å"Her father had always defended and excused her, and her loving remembrance of his tenderness was a force within her that would enable her to do or bear anything for his sake.† (Eliot 284) Maggie’s brother, Tom, is the person of whom she was the most fond of. She turned the cheek on some of his unkind actions toward her in the realization of a strong, unbreakable bond. This excerpt from â€Å"Brother and Sister† (Ashton 90) portrays the type of relationship Maggie and Tom Tulliver have. He was the elder and a little man Of forty inches, bound to show no dread, And I the girl that puppy-like now ran, Now lagged behind my brother’s larger tread. â€Å"Every episode in the early chapters show Maggie’s high hopes of pleasure being dashed by disagreements with Tom.† (Ashton 75) â€Å"Tom indeed was of opinion that Maggie was a silly little thing: all girls were silly...still he was very fond of his sister and always meant to take care of her.†Show MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Mill On The Floss By George Eliot2199 Words   |  9 PagesThis research report reviews scholarly criticism on the much debated character MAGGIE TULLIVER from the book Mill on the floss written by George Eliot. The project I propose analyses Maggie’s character as a whole. The report will begin by discussing the critics point of view of various reasons responsible for the death of Maggie Tulliver. 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Although she would use a number of spelling variations of her name over the years, she was born Mary Anne Evans on 22 November 1819, into a middle-class family, in Warwickshire, England, and was the youngest of five children in her family. George Eliot, actually, was the masculine pen name of the writer Mary Anne Evans, one of Victorian England’s influential novelists. SheRead MoreGeorge Eliot’S The Mill On The Floss, We Follow The Protagonist,1739 Words   |  7 PagesGeorge Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss, we follow the protagonist, Maggie Tulliver who has been mistreated by her family and even her older brother Tom whom she puts on a pedestal. It is clear from the beginning of the book that the relationship between these two is, to some degree, abusive. In it, Maggie relies heavily on Tom for approval and love whereas Tom is strict and demeaning towards his younger sister. Tom and their family’s actions towards Maggie heavily shaped her character. The unhealthyRead MoreEssay on Victorian Age1258 Words   |  6 Pagesnbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The literature of the first four decades of the Victorian period could not help but reflect the social and intellectual controversies of the era. Writers including Matthew Arnold and John Ruskin attacked the problems directly, while Charles Dickens, George Eloit and Alfred Lord Tennyson dramatized the conflicts and challenges in their works. The most popular form for this type of dramatization was the novel. Victorian novels represented almost every aspect of nineteenth century Victorian life. ThoughRead MoreMorality in Victorian and Neo-Victorian Novels Essay4239 Words   |  17 PagesMorality in Victorian and Neo-Victorian Novels An essay on Jane Eyre, The Mill on the Floss, The French Lieutenants Woman, Possession and The Dress Lodger The Victorian era is one bound to morality. Morality is also defined through the traditional and religious standards that structure the way of life for many Victorians. Morality is defined as the proper principles and standards, in respect to right and wrong, which are to be practiced by all humanity. Ideally, these include obtainingRead MoreTaking a Look at Islamophobia636 Words   |  3 PagesHowever islampphoboa is when people fear of islam. And start to hurt muslims mentally and physically and treat them poorly but they are ways to prevent it which is by education and media and many more. Dont judge a book by its cover† ― George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss Many people get critized mostly because of their outer appearance. Especially muslims. Besides none knows a person until he/she talks to them and know them so assuming and juding will get a person to nowhere Read More The English Bildungsroman Essay1678 Words   |  7 PagesEngland. The type of novel that was particularly popular in Victorian England was the novel of youth. Many authors of the time were producing works focused on the journey from childhood to adulthood: Charlotte Bronte wrote Jane Eyre, George Eliot wrote The Mill on the Floss, and Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield and Great Expectations. All of these novels trace the growth of a child. In this respect, some of the most popular novels of the nineteenth century were part of the genre called the BildungsromanRead More Use of Attics in Literature Essay4376 Words   |  18 Pagesmadwomen. But they use that concept as a metaphor for their thesis, that women writers were isolated and treated with approbation. In most literature, attics are dark, dusty, seldom-visited storage areas, like that of the Tulliver house in The Mill on the Floss--a great attic under the old high-pitched roof, with worm-eaten floors, worm-eaten shelves, and dark rafters festooned with cobwebs--a place thought to be weird and ghostly. Attics do not house humans (not even mad ones) they warehouse

Varieties Of Religious Experience By John Updike - 1474 Words

Religious Variety In John Updike’s short story â€Å"Varieties of Religious Experience†, he illustrates four different perspectives on the day of the 9/11 attacks and allows for the readers to understand the minds of multiple people on a day that will forever be remembered in American history. Updike seizes the opportunity to see through various vantage points and it also allows for the readers to have wider sense of faith in the short story. The opportunity of multiple perspectives suggests that there could be something more from a religious experience especially in an ever-evolving technology driven society. Honestly, when I first began to read the short story I was confused as to why Updike would use multiple points of view, but once I had finished I knew that what Updike had done was something only very gifted writers can do. Through each character, Updike allows for the readers to see what happened and what emotions people of different religions felt on the day of 9/11. Updike’s use of multiple protagonists allows for the reader to see each religious, physical, and mental perspective from that fateful day. The first protagonist the reader is introduced to is Dan who is a sixty-four Episcopalian lawyer from Cincinnati. On 9/11, Dan sees the attacks as a simple on looker for a Brooklyn penthouse near the towers that Updike observed the falling towers. Dan, a believer in God until the collapse of the towers, goes through a counter conversion after 9/11. He loses his faith in

Most Significant Things For All Businesses Essay Example For Students

Most Significant Things For All Businesses Essay Scott Mocabee5 things that are most significant for all business’s1. Learning from past mistakes and correcting them in the future. â€Å" The soft- spoken west Virginian got a firsthand glimpse of how arrogance and reluctance to change caused severe pain and dislocation. 2. Cisco uses technology to its advantage. â€Å" Using the network for tech support allows Cisco to save more than its nearest competitor spends on research and development. 3. Cisco has found was to make distribution more efficient. â€Å" By outsourcing production of 70% of its product, Cisco has quadrupled output without building new plants and has cut the time it takes to get a new product to market by two- thirds, to just six months. 4. Cisco shows concern for new an employee who builds loyalty and a close family. â€Å" It tells new employees that Cisco wants then, that Cisco cares about then and that were not just another big company. 5. With loss of personal contact they try to make up with contact later. â€Å" The network works better when you’ve already had a personal touch. Bad1. Cisco has a lot of dependency upon the Internet. â€Å" The network is the glue for the internal working of the company.† 2. Lack of personal contact. â€Å"When an Employee wants information about a company event or health benefits, or needs to track an expense report, the network is the place to go at Cisco.†3. Measuring success by employee retention can lead to some bad employees4. Cisco believes that every deal must have both short and long term goals. This could lead to oversight to long term benefits if no short-term benefits are available. 5. It seems that Chambers is reluctant to have change as it is relevant to it culture which can lead to being stubborn in ones ways. Business Essays

Brutus As A Hero Essay Research Paper free essay sample

Brutus As A Hero Essay, Research Paper Who is the existent Hero of this Play? The dictionary defines a hero as man/woman who is famed for bravery or workss of art. The character in the drama Julius Caesar, who best fits this description, is Brutus. Brutus is the hero in this drama because he demonstrates certain character traits that would be necessary for a individual to be defined as a hero. Brutus demonstrates how he loves Rome even more than himself and those close to him. He demonstrates honesty and leading qualities throughout the full drama. Brutus is the lone true hero in this novel due to the fact that the other characters in this drama do non show these character traits to the same degree, as did Brutus. Brutus # 8217 ; altruistic qualities are but one trait that proves him to be a hero. The violent death of Caesar is a genuinely epic title. We will write a custom essay sample on Brutus As A Hero Essay Research Paper or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page He kills Caesar because he knows that with Caesar going the lone swayer of Rome, the latter would go a tyrant and enslave the people of Rome. # 8220 ; It # 8217 ; s non that I love Caesar, but that I love Rome more. # 8221 ; ( 3,2,22-3 ) -Brutus. This love for Rome is known by the people, and that is why the he is so popular and good respected. Cassius provinces, # 8220 ; O, he sits high in all the people # 8217 ; s Black Marias # 8220 ; ( 1,3,157-60 ) and Antony asserts Brutus is # 8220 ; The noblest adult male to populate in this tide of times. # 8221 ; ( 3,1,256-7 ) . Brutus is non merely seen as a hero by most readers, he is besides seen as a hero by the people of Rome up to a certain portion of the drama. Brutus is the most honorable individual in Julius Caesar. How many slayers would state the whole metropolis that they had merely committed a slaying? The lone 1 that comes to mind is the honorable Brutus. He tells to Romans that the violent death of Caesar is in the best involvement of Rome. He is besides honorable to his state ; he puts his best friend and himself after the well being of Rome. When he began to gain that killing Caesar is non in the best involvement of Rome, he admits it like an honorable adult male, and so kills himself. â€Å"Caesar, now be still ; I kill’d non thee with half so good a will. ( 5,5, 51-2 ) † All in all, a individual so honorable as Brutus should be considered a hero. Over the old ages most great heroes have been great leaders, and that is no exclusion when it comes to Brutus. Equally shortly as Brutus joins the plotters, he instantly takes charge. He decides to kill Caesar but non to kill Antony ; he speaks to the angry rabble right after he kills Caesar, and he is the chief leader of the ground forces contending Mark Antony. He falls down with his ground forces merely like a good leader should. He besides states that killing Caesar was a error, and he apologises for it before he kills himself. Basically Brutus may do some errors, but he makes up for them and that # 8217 ; s what makes him a great leader. In short these are but three of the many grounds why Brutus is a hero. Merely a hero puts his state before himself and his friends. Merely a hero admits to killing a adult male with giving merely cause, right after he commits the slaying. Merely a hero can take so many work forces into a losing conflict with merely cause. Quite merely, Brutus is a hero because his enemy Mark Antony said so ; # 8221 ; He is the baronial adult male to populate this tide of times. ( 3,1, 256-7 ) # 8221 ;